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About the Keynote Speaker

Linda S. Noelker, PhD

Dr. Noelker is an adjunct professor of sociology at Case Western University. She began her career as an applied aging researcher at the Benjamin Rose Institute in its Margaret Blenkner Research Institute in 1974. She became the research director in 1986 and the director of the Katz Policy Institute in 2007, which was named in honor of Dr. Sidney Katz. She was also the Senior Vice President for Planning and Organizational Resources. Dr. Noelker retired from the Institute in June 2015.

Throughout her career, she has conducted research on the nature and effects of family care for frail elders, patterns of service use by older adults and their family caregivers, and sources of stress and job satisfaction among direct care workers. Dr. Noelker has published widely in professional journals on the support networks of older adults, quality of life, the well-being of family caregivers, predictors of service use, and the nature of social relationships in nursing homes.

Dr. Noelker has served on the board of the National Center of Creative Aging from 2007 until 2015, including a service as board president. She has also served as Editor-in-Chief of The Gerontologist, the leading scientific journal in applied aging research, practice, and policy. She has held leadership positions in the American Society on Aging (ASA) and the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the two major professional societies in the field of aging.